Cruiser Showdown: Kawasaki Eliminator vs Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650

Kawasaki Eliminator is a little more rebellious and, despite the same low-riding stance, puts on a more modern avatar.

With the launch of the Kawasaki Eliminator, the middle-weight cruiser segment is suddenly seeing a little bit of heat. In a segment that was earlier almost exclusively dominated by the Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650, the only rival was still a Kawasaki bike (the Vulcan 650), but with a significantly more powerful engine and a proportionately more expensive price tag. The Eliminator now changes these dynamics and brings the fight right to RE’s doorstep. So, how do these two bikes square up? Let’s find out.

Kawasaki Eliminator

Design

Like all things bikes and cars, we start at the drawing board. Now, both bikes are cruisers, but their styling takes two wildly different approaches. On the one hand, you have the Super Meteor with its old-school, chrome-laden artwork. On the other hand, the Kawasaki is a little more rebellious and, despite the same low-riding stance, puts on a more modern avatar. The Super Meteor’s chassis was designed by Harris Performance, a Britain-based parts manufacturer, exclusively for it. It gets the typically wide fuel tank, a big round headlamp, and a big couch-like seat. The Eliminator does things a little differently. It still gets the wide fuel tank, the wide rider’s seat, and the round headlamp. But it gets a trellis frame chassis, giving the Eliminator a more naked, aggressive look. The pillion seat, too, seems to encourage passengers to get off rather than enjoy the ride, and the rider’s footpegs are set just below the rider, compared to the Super Meteor’s feet-forward design. Of course, looks are subjective, so we can leave the ‘who looks better’ debate to you.

Now we’ll talk about ‘who is bigger?’ Clearly, the Super Meteor 650 has the larger engine here. A 648cc air-cooled parallel-twin churns out a healthy 46.3 hp of maximum power and 52.3 Nm of peak torque. All of this is then mated to a six-speed gearbox. The Eliminator, on the other hand, is powered by a smaller 451cc parallel-twin mill. This is no slouch though, as the liquid-cooled heart produces almost the same amount of power as the Super Meteor – 44hp, even if the peak torque is lower at 42.6 Nm. But when looking at these specs, one also has to keep in mind the weight of the bikes. Even with the Super Meteor’s bigger engine, it still has to chug around 241 kg, while the Eliminator pushes just 176 kg.

Now the Super Meteor has a few more premium parts compared to the Kawasaki. For example, it gets upside-down front forks compared to the conventional telescopic forks on the Eliminator. Stopping power, too, comes from slightly larger discs on the Super Meteor, with a 320mm disc up front and a 300mm disc at the rear. The Eliminator discs measure 310mm and 240mm at the front and rear, respectively. The Super Meteor also runs a slightly larger 19-inch front tyre compared to the 18-incher on the Eliminator, while the rear tyres are an identical 16 inches.

Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650

Features

Moving on to ‘who has more?’, the Super Meteor wins by a very, very slim margin. Both bikes get all-LED lighting, dual-channel ABS, a digital instrument cluster (the Super Meteor’s is a semi-digital one, but we’ll let that slide), and smartphone connectivity. The reason the Super Meteor wins by a millimetre is the USB charging port. The Super Meteor also gets a bunch of accessories, including a really tall windscreen, a pillion backrest, and more. Kawasaki, however, has yet to show us what they’ve got.

And finally, ‘how much?’ The Super Meteor starts at a respectable Rs 3.64 lakh at the base, going up to Rs 3.94 lakh — barely touching that Rs 4 lakh barrier. The Kawasaki Eliminator — you have to remember that it retails on the premium market — is priced at a mind-numbing Rs 5.62 lakh. For most of us, this is probably where the majority of our decision-making abilities may end. But both bikes demand careful consideration. Would you rather ride super-relaxed on the Super Meteor rocking that black leather jacket, half helmet, and vintage aviator goggles, or do you want a little more oomph in your stance with an open-face helmet and a sling bag?